Do arcs require flat halo cusps?

Abstract

It was recently claimed that several galaxy clusters containing radial and tangential gravitational arcs and having a measured velocity-dispersion profile for the brightest cluster galaxy had to have central density profiles considerably flatter than those found in CDM cluster simulations. Using a simple analytic mass model, we confirm this result_for axially symmetric_ mass distributions, but show that steep density profiles are well in agreement with the cluster requiring the flattest axially symmetric profile once even small deviations from axial symmetry are introduced.